ours. You dropped it, and I picked it up. Has
any one a better right to it?"

She looked up at him half defiantly, half pleadingly.

"You have no right to it," she said, in a low voice, which she tried in
vain to keep steady. "You--you are attracting attention----"

She glanced at the women near her, some of whom were eying the pair with
sideway looks of curiosity.

"I am desperate," he said; "I can bear it no longer. I told you the
other day that I had come to the end of my power of endurance. You--you
are cold--and cruel. I want your decision; I must have it. I cannot
bear----"

"Hush!" she said warningly, the screen in her hand shaking. "I will
speak to you later--after--after some of them have gone. No; not
to-night. Do not remain here any longer."

"As you please," he said, with a sullen resentment; and he crossed the
room to Nell, and began to talk to her. As a rule, he talked very
little; but the wine had loosened his tongue, and he launched out into a
cynical and amusing diatribe against society and all its follies.

Nell listened with surprise at first; then she began to feel amused, and
laughed.

He drew a chair near her and bent toward her, lowering his voice and
speaking in an impressive tone quite unusual with him. To the casual
observer it might well have seemed that they were carrying on a
desperate flirtation; but every now and then he paused absently, and
presently he rose almost abruptly and went into an anteroom.

An antique table with writing materials stood in a recess. He wrote
something rapidly on a half sheet of note paper, and placing it inside a
book, laid the volume on the pedestal of a Sevres vase standing near the
table.

When he left Nell, Lady Wolfer crossed over to her.

"Sir Archie has been amusing you, dear?" she said, casually enough; but
the smile which accompanied the remark did not harmonize with the
unsmiling and anxious eyes.

"Oh, yes," said Nell, laughing. "He has been talking the most utter
nonsense."

"He--he is very strange to-night," said Lady Wolfer, biting her lip
softly. Not to innocent Nell could she even hint that Sir Archie had
taken more wine than was good for him. "He has been talking utter
nonsense to me. Did you notice the flower in his coat?"

"No," said Nell, with some surprise. "Why?"

Lady Wolfer laughed unnaturally.

"Nothing. Yes! Nell, I want you to get that flower from him. It--is a
bet."

"I--get it from him?" said Nell, opening her